The Wesley United Methodist Church in Riverside, has been exploring whether or not they are ready willing and able to be a member of the Reconciling Ministries Network. If they succeed in their quest they will be the first Reconciling Congregation in the city of Riverside. I lead my congregation through the process of becoming a Reconciling Church in 2011. The folks at Wesley asked me to come and preach for them on the 19th of March as they focused on the third chapter of the Claiming the Promise Bible Study. Having recently been reminded that the Board of Ordained Ministry in the United Methodist Church see themselves as gatekeepers called to protect the church from unqualified leaders who seek acceptance into the order of elders and deacons, I realized that there are church members who see themselves as gatekeepers called to protect the church from those they deem unworthy to be a part of the body of Christ. Below is the text of the Sermon I preached to the congregation at Wesley UMC gathered on March 19, 2017.
Scriptures are Psalm 139, !st Corinthians 7:17-20 and Matthew 5-7
SERMON TEXT
A few years ago I was at an event where one of the participants had written a hymn based on Psalm 139. She taught it to everyone in the place and the chorus for all to sing with gusto was “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” As a matter of fact that was the name she had given to the hymn. That verse seems to be the verse from the Psalm that speaks to all who read it. When we read this Psalm we hear the Psalmist proclaim how intimately God has been involved in creating him: “forming and knitting together his inward parts in his mother’s womb. This Psalm begins and ends with the same confession and plea almost as if the Psalmist is defending himself in a court of law, not before God, but before humankind: O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
And the final verse: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
In his defense of himself, he lifts up this incredible tribute to the inescapable God, who is ever present, and who knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them yet existed.
In other words, he is saying, “You, O God knew who I would be before I did.” This notion sounds a lot like a belief in pre-determinism thousands of years before the theological construct existed.
The apostle Paul like the Psalmist faced many a critic in his work and mission to the Gentiles. His words: "If God is for us who is against us?” echo the thoughts of the Psalmist as Paul proclaims that there is nothing in all the earth that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
In the early church, Paul encountered antagonists and detractors, people who accused him of spreading the gospel in all the wrong places, the wrong way, and among the wrong people. He encountered well-intentioned people who saw themselves as the “Gatekeepers” of the early church –that is those called to insure those confessing their faith in Jesus Christ fit the appropriate criteria, and went through the right and proper initiation for acceptance into the body.
Paul, who was himself a Jewish Pharisee -- that is a scholar of the Mosaic Law, turned Christian Missionary, brought his new found faith to the Gentiles, who were viewed by other leaders within the fledgling Jewish sect as unclean, polytheists, who did not live by or comprehend the significance of the laws of Moses. Paul’s mission to the Gentiles seemed often to be challenged by these gatekeeper missionaries who taught that to be truly Christian gentiles needed to be circumcised. Paul writes in chapter 7 of his first letter to the church in Corinth:
…let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call to the Christian Life and discipleship already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but obeying the commandments of God is everything. Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called.
FINALLY if we are serious about being disciples of Jesus we are called to follow his commandments and teachings. They are clearly outlined in the Sermon on the Mount. (chapters 5-7 in Matthew’s Gospel)
Jesus reached out in love to people who were marginalized and ostracized in their own communities. The scriptures testify that he spent time with people from all walks of life, inviting them to embrace and be embraced by the kingdom of God. There was nothing in his teaching about changing one’s nature, unless it was one’s nature to be evil, wicked, mean, and bad and nasty. The content of his Sermon on the Mount was about personal conduct in relation to God and humankind.
• Being one who is poor in spirit, means you don’t have all the answers, and are open to learn. BE OPEN!
• Being one who has regrets, means you are willing to learn something new knowing that you haven’t always been successful in the decisions you have made. LEARN SOMETHING NEW.
• Being among the gentle, means you have room in your heart and mind for the thoughts and opinions of others. It means you don’t have to be in control of everything all the time. BE FLEXIBLE.
• Being one who hungers and thirsts for justice and right to prevail means you can see clearly the plight of a fellow who has been or is being treated unfairly. It means you will look for a way to make things right. BE JUST.
• Being one who is merciful, means you will NOT make up your mind about an issue or the value of person based on their mistakes, locking up your mind, never allowing it to be unlocked again in your lifetime. BE MERCIFUL
• Being one whose heart is pure, means you won’t hold a grudge, which darkens the heart and casts a shadow over your spirit. CLEANSE YOUR HEART REGULARLY.
• Being a peace maker, means you are one who strives to bring peace in any given situation, not fan the flames of strife. MAKE PEACE.
• Being persecuted for being a person of good character goes with the territory and being persecuted for being a follower of Jesus is the ultimate testament to one’s discipleship. SACRIFICE.
• Be tasty; be strong; be indivisible; BE SALT
• BE THE LIGHT in someone’s darkness.
• Don’t hold onto anger
• In relationships stay faithful and work it out.
• Don’t swear to anything, but LET YOUR WORD BE YES, YES OR NO, NO.
• DON’T RETALIATE OR RESIST AN EVILDOER, SURRENDER
• LOVE YOUR ENEMY
• GIVE TO THE POOR
• PRAY SIMPLY: Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our bread for tomorrow. And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into the time of temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
• FAST not for the world to see, but alone and in secret
• INVEST YOUR HEART IN THE TREASURES OF HEAVEN
• KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE KINGDOM PRIZE- AND THEY WILL BE HEALTHY AND FULL OF LIGHT
• DECIDE WHOM YOU WILL SERVE
• DON’T BE ANXIOUS
• DON’T JUDGE OTHERS
• DON’T WASTE TIME ON PEOPLE WHO WON’T LISTEN
• ASK, SEARCH AND KNOCK
• DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO TO YOU
• FIND THE NARROW GATE AND ENTER THROUGH IT
• BEAR FRUIT
• DON’T DECEIVE YOURSELVES, BUT DO THE WILL OF GOD
• DON’T JUST BE HEARERS, BE DOERS WHOSE HOUSE IS BUILT ON A SOLID ROCK FOUNDATION OF FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST.
There is nothing in these commandments that says be a gatekeeper working to keep people out of the kingdom of God, or separate from the table of grace. There is nothing in these commandments that says it is your job to sort the wheat from the chaff, or your job to remove the weeds sown among the wheat. Your job as disciples of Jesus Christ is to minister to everyone in Jesus name, to bring them the good news, to be the good news, which doesn’t mean telling them that they should, somehow, morph into being someone else, or mimic you, your values, and your behaviors. Jesus didn’t reach out to people to convert them. He reached out to people to offer them God and life in a whole new key. Our desire, of course, is to behave in this world as much like him as possible, to work too bind up the brokenhearted, to set the captive free, to give sight to the blind, and to declare the year of the Lord’s favor.
Therefore, we are called to welcome those who are similar to us, and those who are different with no expectation that anyone deny how God knit them together in their mother’s womb. NO!!!
Let us be those who embrace the YES that Jesus offered to all people.
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Amanda J. Burr
March 19, 2017
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